Cruella is baaaaaaaaaaaack

Well sort of. There have been several reminders, varying in gentleness, by readers of this blog that I seem to have forgotten about it. I had not forgotten but I have spent the last several weeks wrestling with health problems that I am now getting over though I still think my body must be rattling with all the medication (being cut down) I seem to be taking. Anyway, enough of that. The point is that I am picking up the pieces of what is laughing known as life, writing articles I ought to have written a while ago and preparing some bigger projects.

The next biggish project is a talk I shall be giving at the Deptford Heritage Festival about Peter the Great's semi-incognito visit in 1698. Amongst all this the blogs (this and the Conservative History Journal) have been put on the back burner, not least because this break seems to me a good opportunity to do a little thinking about their future, in particular, the future of Your Freedom and Ours.

The fact that it needs to have its heading redesigned goes without saying. At present there is nothing but the green benches, which makes it look like a blog about the House of Commons. It is most emphatically not a blog about the House of Commons. I tend to write more about the House of Lords, if anything. In any case, parliamentary matters form a small part. There are other issues that I would like to cover: the referendum up to a point as it is covered by a very large number of other people and I remain unimpressed by all the various campaigns (which ought to mean that I should contribute my own tuppennyworth), other political matters in Britain and other countries; subjects I am generally interested in, such as books I am reading and, perhaps, reviewing, detective stories, their history and relevance, history of cookery and cookery books, films, particularly anti-Communist ones and random observations. All of which is difficult to put together.

One possibility is separating some of the subjects out and have another blog, let us say, about detective stories (I do actually have a title for it) and then pull all of them together on one website that could also have some longer essays. Sounds good, huh? Unfortunately, as all who know me realize, my tecchie knowledge is minimal and my erstwhile tecchie assistant has gone on to doing far bigger things in life.

Or I could keep it all one one blog with several sub-headings, do a number of short entries as I skim through news and other stories with the periodic longer piece.

Anyway, you see my problem, gentle reader. I shall continue mulling and any, but any helpful advice is welcome.

Post-festive message

Somehow I did not manage to get round to wishing all my readers a very merry Christmas though, obviously, I did do so at the back of my mind. I hope everyone did have a jolly or quiet Christmas, depending on what they wanted and are now relaxing in preparation to the next lot of good wishes at the end of this week. I am aware of my shortcomings in this blog through 2015 but hope to be able to deal with that in the days, weeks and months to come.

Saddened but not surprised

It is an indication of my recent preoccupations that I have not noticed that one of the blogs I have found most useful in the anti-EU fight, Autonomous Mind, has decided to leave the battle field. This is very bad news, indeed, even though it is several months old. Autonomous Mind produced some excellent and detailed analyses of events and of legal aspects of the European project. One can but hope that the blog will stay up there for a little while so we can all continue to raid its archives for our own purposes.

On the other hand, I am not surprised by the decision as it is explained in the last posting:

The simple fact is that, having fallen out of love with politics some time ago, I have now decided that I no longer wish to continue my stand for the things I believe in. This isn’t because of any change of view on my part; rather it is because too many people who claim to share my objectives exhibit staggering ignorance of history and facts, incredible stupidity, intolerance of others and unswerving belief in conspiracy theories that do not stand up to even basic factual scrutiny.

I fear that despite the best efforts of some great people, those I have referred to above will undermine any chance of us achieving British independence from the EU or the implementation of real democracy for the British people. I hope they do not hobble the efforts of good people to change this country for the better, but the risk is significant.

A visit to Twitter, the comment threads of the Telegraph, or on Breitbart London, reveals a particularly vicious, xenophobic and deluded collection of people who not only repel the very people the anti EU side needs to win over, but has now repelled me too. I just don’t want to be associated with such people. I don’t want to have to engage with them, or even challenge what they say. They nauseate me and now I just can’t be bothered. There are plenty of other things I can devote my time to where I don’t have to come into contact with their unique brand of bile and false assertions which mark them out as effectively nasty and unhinged individuals.

Let's just say that my preoccupations and reluctance to blog have had something to do with very similar depressed thoughts. I have, on occasion, written about it as well. For the time being I intend to go on blogging and even blogging about the EU and related matters. But, to quote, a splendid musical: I'm reviewing the situation.

Comments policy

By and large this blog gets fewer comments than many others, particularly EUReferendum, but what there is tends to be of high quality. Sometimes people agree, at others they do not; sometimes they pursue the line raised in a posting further, at others they mention related issues; sometimes I reply, at others there seems no point in it as the comments stand by themselves or a discussion develops between readers. All well and good.

My policy on comments is quite straightforward. They are not to be used for advertising of any kind, not even promoting blogs that are not relevant. A reader saying about a UKIP posting that this is very interesting and here is what he or she said on the subject is absolutely fine. That is part of the dialogue and neither I nor any other blogger can keep up with every blog so we are grateful for links. But a reader saying about a posting on Russia, for instance, that this is very interesting and here is a link to his or her blog on sportswear is deleted on the spot (or as soon as I see it). That is advertising

I do not mind disagreements, criticisms or attacks though I draw the line at overtly personal comments, open racism and anti-Semitism as well as conspiracy theories. 9/11 Truthers or World Government obsessives in any form are discouraged from posting and if that does not work, deleted. I am happy to say there have been very few of those in the history of this blog possibly because they see it as being unimportant. May that last.

There is another rather pestilential incursion and that is the Anonymous attacker. In the past I have made it clear that I shall ignore people who have not the guts to put a name to their posting, especially if it is an attack on the blog or on me (the Boss can look after himself but on my blog he, too, is defended). I understand that some people prefer to use their initials or some other moniker on the internet or the blogosphere and consider that to be a signature as well. Some of those people occasionally tell me in private e-mail who they are and that is fine, too. It has also been drawn to my attention that sometimes people seem to be unable to sign into the blogger comments, something that I can neither explain nor understand. But it is perfectly reasonable for someone in that position to sign a posting or a comment. None of this is Anonymous within the meaning of the word. However, people who think it is acceptable to attack while hiding behind complete anonymity are not people one wishes to have any dealings with. They are, not to put too fine a point on it, contemptible. They should be ignored though I may well, in future, simply comment on such a contribution to point out that here is another cowardly anonymous attack. Or I may ignore it. We shall see.

Cruella is baaaaaaaaaaaaaack

Hospital stay turned out to be a little longer than expected but I am back now and ready to launch into the usual ranting ... ahem .... blogging. Be with you in a few hours.

Temporary blogging silence

Yes, I know, I have just broken that silence but am about to re-impose it, this time officially, for about a week. Early tomorrow morning (you mean there are two 7 o'clocks in the day?) I have to deliver myself into the hands of the NHS for it to deal surgically with a problem in my back that has been making my life very difficult for some months. Make that a couple of years. Anyway, they can deal with it and the operation will be, I hope, if not the end of the problem, at least the beginning of the end. To be honest, I will settle for beginning of the end as anyone who has had back problems that affect mobility (95% of the population) will agree.

Fear not. I will return.

Bah humbug!

Time for me to spread my usual Christmas gloom and misery. Let us start with that iconic Christmas book, Charles Dickens's magnificently well written and utterly ridiculous A Christmas Carol. Gosh, it's a silly book despite the language and the characters (well, one character). Why oh why, I ask every year, does Bob Cratchitt not either change his job (not an indentured slave) or stop having children. In fact, one wonders how on earth he and the missis manage to have children that often. They are not likely to have a great deal of privacy. As for Tiny Tim, don't even start me on him. Little horror. But it is still worth reading if just for the description of the blind beggars' dogs pulling their masters away from Scrooge as he trudges down the street before his highly ridiculous reform. Presumably the dogs will be all over him after it.

And now on to the other iconic Christmas offering, also an astonishingly good and astonishingly silly work of art, the film It's A Wonderful Life. Here is the ending, which shows that George Bailey's rather frustrated and circumscribed life was ALL WORTH IT and also that the people who got money out of him for ... ahem ... sub-prime mortgages were actually not that badly off. I have to admit to still liking the film. It has an excellent cast with James Stewart at the head (who could ask for anything more?) and is a little more complex than its sacchariney reputation has it.

Normal service will resume after the holidays.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

An apology

I am aware that the gap in the postings has been wider than ever and the reason for that is purely technical. I was having very serious problems with unwanted advertising that swamped websites and, in particular, Blogger whenever I wanted to use it. The problems have been solved (D. V.) and I shall re-start blogging in a very short time, possibly hours. I'd like to think that I have spent the intervening period in cogitating about the nature and purpose of this blog.

That prize

I ought to have written about it yesterday, as the Boss did, needless to say. He is just much better at this sort of thing and does not find the heat enervating. (Not complaining, mind you, not after the last few months, just stating a fact.)

Anyway, just about everybody knows that the IEA has announced a Brexit (loathsome word but that is the one they are using) Prize for best submissions about what this country will have to do in the two years after an assumed "out" vote in a referendum. We have to assume it or there will be no prize.

Should one enter, given the number of organizations who are likely to do so and given the dubious nature of the judges? (David Starkey? Really?) I am minded to do so, though, unlike the Boss I have no organization to back me. At least, I don't think I do. But if I don't enter, can I really complain about the nature of submissions? Of course, any advice on the subject will be treated in the spirit in which it is offered.

Where it all started

There are many reasons why blogging is a bit sparse at the moment and one of them was a Saturday spent in trying to find where Russian ambassadors stayed in London from 1557 onwards. So far, every known place seems to  have gone. However, in the process I found this in Lombard Street. This is where it all started. Just as Russian writers of the nineteenth century all supposed to have come out of Gogol's Overcoat, so all of us, hacks of whatever persuasion came out of Lloyds Coffee House.

Something pleasant

A picture I took of a clump of snowdrops in St James's Square on Tuesday before the weather turned cold again.

Let me make it quite clear

I am NOT getting up in time to hear THAT speech at 8 o'clock in the morning. I shall read the text afterwards and fisk it without bothering to read the comments made by those who will be up at the crack of dawn. After all, a pot of coffee will be needed before one can even face the whole issue.

Plunge taken

After some ineffectual fossicking on Twitter and a good deal of bad language I have set up an account that will be used for the dissemination of these postings as well as some other ideas though I promise not to put up what I had for breakfast. (There might be recipes, though.) I think the address is Helen_AT_londononthemap but I might be wrong. That is what I am using.

Decisions, decisions

I am feeling a little chastened as I have just been ticked off (mildly for him) by the Boss for not doing enough for the eurosceptic cause. "You are still on the battlefield, aren't you?" - asked he sternly. Well .... um ... yes ... sort of. As it happens, I was contemplating the possibility of moving the blog into less political waters this year and the two are mutually incompatible. So there we are. Decisions, decisions. Of course, I could do both if I spent less time skimming various stories on the internet and watching bits of musicals on YouTube. Hmmm. Anyway, I shall be setting up a Twitter account but have to decide whether it should be just for this and other blogs or one account for me that would be mostly for the purpose of spreading links to the blogs. Readers will be kept informed.

Christmas greetings

Traditionally this is the time when I remind everyone about the nauseating qualities of Tiny Tim and the ridiculousness of that book's plot. Just why doesn't Bob Cratchitt get another job or stop having children, preferably both? And as for that other staple of Christmas fare, It's a Wonderful Life, errm, is one allowed to mutter sub-prime mortgages.

Ah well, enough is enough. Let us forget all these annoying aspects of Christmas and think about the more cheerful ones: good food, good wine, with a bit of luck good company and pleasant thoughts.

Merry Christmas to all the blog's readers and see you all after the festivities.

EU Referendum

Sharp eyed readers of this blog would have noticed that there were technical problems with the RSS feed from the revered EU Referendum blog. I have discussed matters with the Boss and have removed it from the list of Blogs, placing it among Websites for the time being.

Thanksgiving

It is past midnight here and time to wish happy Thanksgiving to all the American readers of this blog wherever they happen to be.

As before I am linking to the perennial articles in the Wall Street Journal, Nathaniel Morton's account of The Desolate Wilderness and the article that has appeared every year since 1961 to remind America what the festival is about: And the Fair Land.

Happy Thanksgiving.

A website recommended to all

A day or so ago I attended a talk given by David Hart of Liberty Fund about the great French liberal (in the real sense of the word) economic thinker, Frédéric Bastiat, who remains less well known in the land of his birth than in the United States or even in Britain. In France there is a widespread assumption that more or less liberal and free-market ideas come from the despised Anglo-Saxes and no understanding that throughout the nineteenth century French thinking on the subject was probably wider and more profound than its British equivalent.

The talk was a lot of fun, delivered with great verve by a man whose knowledge of the subject is exhaustive but who remains excited about all its aspects. He also reminded us that Liberty Fund publishes on line and for free a large number of classical texts of liberal thought. I am hereby linking to that and shall put it on my website list.

By the way ...

.. and a propos of nothing at all, I have not thanked all the people who sent encouraging messages on the subject of my blogging. Many thanks for your good wishes. For the moment, clearly, I have taken your advice.

On the other hand, I am rather puzzled by the number of people who comment on a blog called Your Freedom and Ours without having the slightest interest in freedom, in fact, without really believing in it. They are, of course, free to comment (within the usual parameters) but others, including the owner of this blog, are free to tell them what they think of them.

Maybe it is worth it

Keen observers of the blogosphere would have noted that I have not been posting on this blog for some days. While I do not aspire to the stupendous productivity of my erstwhile Boss, he of EUReferendum, this has been a longish gap at a time when I have been in London and not in the hands of the NHS.

One reason is that I have been doing other work: articles and postings on the Conservative History Journal Blog and on Fisheries - Truth and Fiction. But this is supposed to be my main blog. Right? Well, yes, right, in every sense of the word. And the time has come for me to ask myself whether there is any point in running this rather shambolic blog, which is largely though not exclusively political. Do I even care about politics nowadays? Certainly not about British politics in which the main stories have been Nick Clegg throwing his toys out of the pram (again), hacks speculating about Boris Johnson taking over the Conservative Party (you know the silly season is upon us) and the wretched Louise Mensch fulfilling everybody's prediction and abandoning her less than promising political career having learnt nothing about constitutional rules and customary practices. (I feel better for having got that off my chest.)

There is always the EU though I have more or less given up on trying to explain the reality about it to anyone in Britain. No, we are not going to get out but it will probably implode while we are still discussing how to reform it or to have a different relationship with it and calling for a referendum. (No, that does not make me feel better.)

Then there are other matters: Russia, American politics, propaganda. the lack of truth being spoken about Communism, the Middle East and so on. Is there really any point in blogging about any of it and what would that achieve beyond occasionally making me feel that I have done something useful and that feeling has not really been part of my blogging life for quite a long time.

Maybe I should abandon all those subjects and blog exclusively about the books I read, films I see and other suchlike highfalutin' matter. But who would want to read that?

So there we are, dear reader. These are the thoughts that have been revolving in my head for the last few weeks without bothering to consult anyone. My conclusions? Temporarily I have decided that maybe it is worth it as long as I keep a wary eye on my writing and see some point to it all. To be reconsidered at a future date.

ADDENDUM: If anyone is truly bored with the Olympics, they can listen to the somewhat unbalanced debate on whether Britain should stay in the European Union, recorded at the LSE some little while ago and broadcast on Radio 4 this evening. There will be some familiar names.